Ukrainian government departments, the central bank, a state-run aircraft manufacturer, the airport in Kiev and the metro network have all been paralyzed by the hack.

The virus is believed to be ransomware – a piece of malicious software that shuts down a computer system and then demands an extortionate sum of money to fix the problem. It comes on the shadow of another threat – WannaCry – which affected more than 150 countries. It is believed by American and British analysts that the WannaCry attack in May was carried out by North Korea. It still remains unclear who is responsible for this latest attack.

It has never been more important to secure your systems, make frequent back-ups and be diligent about access to your enterprises.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.